1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of consumer electronic devices. In particular, the present invention pertains to a system and method for providing user interfaces for networked electronic devices including remote devices.
2. Related Art
The typical home entertainment system today consists of a variety of different consumer electronic devices which present and record audio/visual media in different ways. In the field of media devices, there is a spectrum of features for products of a given class (VCRs, video camera, etc.). Most of the features are represented by physical controls or elements on a control panel on the device which can be manipulated by a human user.
For instance, typical home audio-visual (AV) equipment includes a number of components such as a radio receiver or "tuner," a compact disk (CD) player and/or a digital video disc player (DVD), a number of speakers, a television, a video cassette recorder (VCR), a tape deck, and the like. Each of these components are connected to each other via a set of wires. One component is usually the central component of the home AV system; for example, the tuner. The tuner has a number of specific inputs for coupling the other components. The tuner has a corresponding number of control buttons or control switches which provide a limited degree of controllability and interoperability for the components. The control buttons and control switches are usually located on the front of the tuner providing the user with a so-called hard front panel interface. In many cases, some, or all, of these buttons and switches are duplicated on a hand-held remote control unit, another type of hard front panel interface. A user controls the home AV system by manipulating the buttons and switches on the front of the tuner or, alternatively, by manipulating buttons on the hand-held remote control unit. This conventional home AV system paradigm has become quite popular.
As consumer electronic devices become more capable and more complex, the demand for the latest and most capable devices has increased. As new devices emerge and become popular, the devices are purchased by consumers and "plugged" into their home AV systems. As a consumer purchases new devices (e.g., digital audio tape recorders, digital video disk players, digital camcorders, and the like), most often the new device is simply plugged into the system alongside the pre-existing, older devices (e.g., cassette tape deck, CD player, and the like). The new device is plugged into an open input on the back of the tuner or into some other device coupled to the tuner. The consumer (e.g., the user) controls the new device via the control buttons on the tuner, via the control buttons and control switches on the front of the new device itself, or via an entirely new and separate remote control unit for the new device.
As the number of new consumer electronic devices for the home AV system have grown and as the sophistication and capabilities of these devices have increased, a number of problems with the conventional paradigm have emerged. One such problem is incompatibility between devices in the home AV system. Consumer electronic devices from one manufacturer often couple to an AV system in a different manner than similar devices from another manufacturer. For example, a tuner made by one manufacturer may not properly couple with a television made by another manufacturer.
In addition, where one device is much newer than another device, additional incompatibilities may exist. For example, a new device might incorporate hardware (e.g., specific inputs and outputs) which enables more sophisticated remote control functions. This hardware may be unusable with older devices within the AV system. Also, for example, older tuners may lack suitable inputs for some newer devices (e.g., mini-disc players, VCRs, etc.), or may lack enough inputs for all devices of the system. Another problem is the lack of functional support for differing devices within an AV system. For example, even though a television may support advanced sound formats (e.g., surround sound, stereo, etc.), if an older and less capable tuner does not support such functionality, the benefits of the advanced sound formats can be lost.
Another problem is the proliferation of controls for the new and differing devices within the home AV system. For example, similar devices from different manufacturers can each have different control buttons and control switch formats for accomplishing similar tasks (e.g., setting the clock on a VCR, programming a VCR record a later program, and the like). In addition, each new device coupled to the AV system often leads to another dedicated remote control unit for the user to keep track of and learn to operate.
To address the problems above, a home AV network has been proposed for consumer electronic devices, including computing devices (e.g., personal computers and peripheral devices such as printers). The home AV network provides a set of services which facilitate device interoperability and allow the devices to cooperate to perform application tasks. By connecting consumer electronic devices in a home AV network, it is also possible to share processing and storage resources. In addition, a home AV network allows consumer electronic devices to be coordinated and simultaneously controlled by a user, thereby simplifying that aspect of operation from the user's perspective. The underlying structure of a home AV network consists of a set of interconnected clusters of devices. Typically, there may be more than one cluster in a home, perhaps one per floor or one per room. Each cluster functions as a set of interconnected devices to provide services to a single user or to multiple simultaneous users.
Recently, a class of consumer electronic media devices has been proposed that can be networked together using a particular type of network using a standard communication protocol layer, e.g., IEEE 1394 communication standard. The IEEE 1394 standard is an international standard for implementing an inexpensive high-speed serial bus architecture which supports both asynchronous and isochronous format data transfers. The IEEE 1394 standard provides a high-speed serial bus for interconnecting digital devices, thereby providing universal input/output connection. The IEEE 1394 standard defines a digital interface for applications, thereby eliminating the need for an application to convert digital data to an analog form before it is transmitted across the bus. Correspondingly, a receiving application will receive digital data, not analog data, from the bus and will therefore not be required to convert analog data to digital form. The IEEE 1394 standard is ideal for consumer electronics communication in part because devices can be added to or removed from the serial bus while the bus is active. If a device is so added or removed, the bus automatically reconfigures itself for transmitting data between the then existing devices. Each device on the bus is a "node" and contains its own address space.
The provision of the IEEE 1394 serial communication bus for networking consumer electronic devices has introduced a powerful new platform on which device functionality and interoperability can be built. For instance, in such a system, complex operations involving media transfers, media recordings and media presentation can be performed that involve two or more devices acting in concert. However, interaction between these devices can be complex, error prone and laborious if it is required that each device be directly touched in order to properly configure the desired operation. The problems associated with properly configuring the media operation can be exacerbated if one or more of the devices are remotely located and/or need constant attention and or adjustment.
The physical separation between devices in a home AV network still introduces a problem regarding control of a particular device. A user may be trying to remotely control a device that is physically separated from the user and thus can not be seen. For example, a VCR on the home AV network may be in one room, while the user is in another room containing the television. Thus the user is not sure whether he/she entered in the proper commands and that the device is correctly performing the desired function.
Another problem is introduced when there are multiple users simultaneously on the home AV network, each user working from a separate location. Thus, continuing the example above, more than one user may be attempting to control the VCR. Each user, not aware of the fact that there is another user also trying to use the VCR, will be entering commands that are perhaps conflicting and that are not being implemented. In addition, each user will not have information regarding the status of the VCR (e.g., whether the VCR is recording or playing), and thus will not be aware of whether they successfully entered the proper commands and whether the device is performing the desired function.
In addition, it is often desired to provide remote control access to the features performed by a consumer electronic device so that these devices can be accessed from a central location within a home or office. However, not all consumer electronic devices are able to provide a sophisticated display system for remote interaction, e.g., some devices offer only a small liquid crystal display (LCD) or a small collection of light emitting diodes (LEDs) as display devices. What is needed is a mechanism for interfacing remotely with devices that provides a sophisticated level of user interaction for many devices. Also, in many consumer electronic systems, each device can have its own remote control unit. In systems having even a modest amount of devices, the user discovers that three or more different and bulky remote control devices are required to perform media operations. What is needed is a mechanism for interfacing with electronic devices that reduces the problems of having different remote control units for different devices. What is needed further is a mechanism for interfacing with electronic devices that is flexible and can adapt to new devices and device types within the consumer electronics market.